A mysterious object with one of the earliest representations of a Sumerian army

This object was found in one of the largest graves in the Royal Cemetery at Ur, lying in the corner of a chamber above the right shoulder of a man. Its original function is not yet understood. Leonard Woolley, the excavator at Ur, imagined that it was carried on a pole as a standard, hence its common name. Another theory suggests that it formed the soundbox of a musical instrument.

When found, the original wooden frame for the mosaic of shell, red limestone and lapis lazuli had decayed, and the two main panels had been crushed together by the weight of the soil. The bitumen acting as glue had disintegrated and the end panels were broken. As a result, the present restoration is only a best guess as to how it originally appeared.

The dedication, inspiration and romanticism of piecing together the imagination using all sorts of mosaic materials is not only art but also magic. I suddenly understand how, everything can be made out of anything,.

It is indeed a fine piece of art. But it just does not bear comparison with Egyptian art of the same period. Try Googling Statue of Khafre… Statue of Rahotep…Tomb of Mereruka and follow any available links for more examples to see what I mean. I am not being precious here, but credit where credit is due and to Egypt goes the prize!

My web site is being created to make the history art and architecture accessable to everyone. Your work here will make a huge difference in the way I will be able to work with this piece.

Please look at ahaafoundation.org to see what I am doing. At the moment I have gone around the prehistoric world and the early villages period. So come on a walk about with me and let me know if you find this a learning tool for others.

This site is fantastic! It helped me with my history assignment and gave me the opportunity to see the stendard in the smallest details! I had already seen the mosaic at the Bristish Museum but I did not remember it well!

first off; this is copied word for word from the brittish museum website, and second; it wasn’t excacated in good condition at all, the version o f the Standard of Ur that we know today is just a restoration of the original… it was in very bad condition when it was excavated…